Mary Ballard

Dr. Mary Ballard earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from West Virginia University. She teaches an array of classes focusing on developmental psychology and on gender. Dr. Ballard directs a video game lab where she and her students examine the impact of violence, competition, cooperation, etc. during video game play on aggression, positive and negative affective responding, desensitization, and physiological responding, including cardiovascular responses, EMG, and sleep. In addition, Dr. Ballard and her students and colleagues examine bullying, both in the context of video game play and in day-to-day contexts. She is particularly interested in the how bullying impacts LGBTQ youth.